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Expense summary

Sunday, November 27th, 2005

While researching our trip to Laos and Cambodia, we had inquired of a tour company (A World Away Travels) about putting together a trip using our planned itinerary, and gasped at the cost, around 2400 USD per person for 19 days. Then we went ahead and did it on our own and our trip ended up costing about exactly HALF per day what the tour company would have charged. We traveled for 23 days for about $63 per day per person. Clearly we are not budget backpackers! But we are not 5 star travelers either.

Our hotels ranged from $7.50 for a bungalow just across the Lao border in Chiang Kong, Thailand, to $75.50 for a very nice, but too remote hotel in Siem Reap. We also paid $74 for each of two nights in Phnom Penh at a “boutique hotel” with a balcony overlooking the riverfront during the Bon Om Tuk river reversing festival, well worth the expense. Our average hotel cost per night was $41.50, and 7 nights cost less than $25.

We had brought some food items with us: peanut butter & crackers, instant coffee, granola, dried fruit, instant oatmeal, M&Ms and Dove chocolates, tuna packets and canned chicken spread for picnics and emergencies, but we ate all our dinners and some lunches at restaurants, and our breakfasts were often included in the hotel rate. Our daily food expense (not including the stuff we brought from home) was $7.55 per day for the two of us! Dinners ranged from $3.90 to $12.25, including beer! A very inexpensive – and tasty – region for eating. We liked the Lao meals better than the Cambodian meals (which tended to be oilier like Chinese stir fries), and we really enjoyed the many Indian restaurants we came across in Laos. Beerlao comes in big 620 ml bottles for a dollar or less, and tastes great. Angkor Beer wasn’t quite as good, nor as cheap.

Future posts will include itinerary and maybe, a blow by blow account of our excellent adventure.

Initial Impressions

Sunday, November 27th, 2005

Sabadie!

Have been home for less than a week, and have some initial impressions to pass on about Laos and Cambodia.

We LOVED Laos! It reminded us of what we liked about Burma (Myanmar): friendly happy people, beautiful countryside, the village way of life. We were somewhat less enamored of Cambodia, as it kept reminding us of what we haven’t liked about China: crowds, noise, litter, repiratory infections… And I was a bit underwhelmed by Angkor Wat, after all the hype it’s gotten. Still trying to figure out why I wasn’t more impressed. Pagan in Burma (and Tikal in Guatemala) was so much more awe-inspiring.

We were amazed at the number of travelers we met who were traveling for 6 months or 9 months or a year or more. We had only 3 weeks to explore two countries. Some of them spent 3 weeks in just one city….

We had NO problems on this trip, no bird flu, no thefts, and only one tuk tuk driver at the Thai border who knew we were in a hurry and short changed us (all of 70 cents). We did both get colds (Bill got two!) and we both had stomach upsets – Kim threw up on two different occasions in Cambodia (we thought she was gonna die for about three hours, with a high fever and relentless barfing); Bill just toughed out his intestinal distress till he felt better, by sleeping on the slow boat to the Thai border.

Most of the time, though, we felt great. We were aware of a feeling of well-being we don’t normally have on a trip. In Laos, we felt that the people were happy, the chickens, the pigs, and the cows were happy, and the water buffalos were especially content! Didn’t suffer much jet lag going over, though we were in the air for 22 hours on three flights getting from Montana to Bangkok. And we didn’t get anxious to get home in the least, even toward the end of the trip.

People at home have asked us Why Laos, Why Cambodia? They couldn’t imagine going to a 3rd world country on purpose! Having been there now, we’ll know what to tell them!

Future posts will include information about expenses and itinerary…

Hello fellow travelers!

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2005
Sabadie! We just returned from three weeks in Laos and Cambodia and are happy to share info with fellow travelers. When we have a bit more time, we'll post our travelog here. Kim and Bill from Montana